Day 4: Giulia Steingruber

Yesterday, we looked at one hero of The Hard Way to Success series – Brinn Bevan- today, with just 6 days to go in our #countdowntoRio, we’ll look at another: multiple Swiss National Champion, Giulia Steingruber. Check our her episode here!

Despite some great performances from the Swiss team, which placed them in fourth position at the 2016 European Championships in front of a home crowd in Bern, the team has failed to qualify for Rio. So Giulia, by far their most experienced and decorated gymnast – in fact the first Swiss woman to win the all-around European title – will travel to Rio with the Men’s team and aims to qualify both for the all-around final and the vault final. Vault, her strongest apparatus, has brought her many medals, including the European title (here) twice, but was also her downfall at the 2015 World Championships. A horribly short blind landing resulted in a knee injury that kept her out of the rest of the competition but she was able to return strongly in 2016 and comes into Rio in great form.

Not just a powerful vaulter, Giulia was also the first woman to compete a full twisting gainer front layout off beam at the 2011 World Championships and so had the skill named after her! Known for her consistency on all apparatus, her powerful tumbling and her work ethic (especially after overcoming a serious mental block), she attributes much of her success and love for gymnastics to her sister, who has a disability: as Giulia says, ‘sometimes I have the feeling that I move for two people’. If you have the chance to use your body, then you ought to – and relishing every single movement means gymnasts really can fly!